Apple's iPhone OS 4 unveiled

Whilst the great majority of you were hitting the books, Apple has been quite busy. A week after the iPad release the fruity company sent out invites to an iPhone OS4 event titled 'Get a sneak peak into the future of iPhone OS'. Now of course, this wasn't really a surprise for those keeping up, but what did strike people in the know was that even though Apple's mobile operating system is now powering three separate devices, the iPhone, the iPod touch and the iPad, it's still called iPhone OS. Still, Apple did its adoring fans proud with a show and release of the developer version of the OS.

Apple changed a lot of things in the iPhone OS, most of them small or not user accessible, but here's what you need to know:

For all intents and purposes it's got 'multitasking'. OK, in truth it's not real multitasking, but on device with a screen that small who's going to want to run two full programs side-by-side, if just running the important threads of the program can do the job just fine? The dock has been modified to allow rapid app switching between those running in the background and it's also gotten all 3D on us, just like the Mac OS X dock you know and love. The springboard now has Folders too, so you can bundle apps of your choosing into spring-loaded folders on your home pages. If you've ever used Stacks on Mac OS X you'll know how Folders work. iPhone mail has been upgraded with multiple Exchange profile support and a unified Inbox, plus you can now have wallpapers on your home screen not just lock screen. I bet you've been longing for that ever since you saw the iPhone right? Mr. Jobs also unveiled iBooks for iPhone OS to bring it into line with the iPad, and like the Amazon Kindle and iPhone app, it'll sync your reading position between your iPhone and your iPad. Game Center was another big unveil, which is aiming to bring you an Xbox Live-like experience with multiplayer matchmaking, achievements and all the goodies you've come to expect from modern online gaming. Now all they need to do is give the iPhone and iPod touch some more buttons so the control schemes of iPhone games don't suck.

Last but not least Apple took a swipe at Google and it's mobile advertising division with the announcement of iAds. Essentially Apple is building an advertising platform directly into its mobile operating system and you're going to love it! OK, I might be exaggerating just a tad here, I'm as sceptical as you as to whether this is actually better for the user, but Apple showed off interactive ads that are unlike anything you've seen before. Let's just hope it doesn't turn the iPhone an ad-riddled mess like the internet has become.

Like pervious iPhone OS updates, iPhone OS4 is going to be available as an upgrade for previous iPhone models. The kicker here though, is that original (2G) iPhone owners and iPod touch owners are going to be left out in the cold. iPhone 3G owners are going to get a lot of the newfangledness, but you're going to be missing out on multitasking, wallpapers and some other smaller things. Of course iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3rd generation users are going to get the whole shebang, but it might cost you, we'll have to wait till closer to the 'summer' launch window to find out. iPad owners/fanciers, you'll get your taste of iPhone OS4 but you're going to have to sit tight till the Autumn. Oh and those living on the wild side will be pleased to know it's already been jailbroken.

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